Light ~ Acts 6-8:1
HighLights ~ First “deacons” selected; one of them, Stephen, arrested by Jewish authorities; Stephen before the Jewish Council; Stephen stoned to death.
InSights ~ The church grows! And as it grows, and people are seeing “how they love one another”, taking care of the needy, many needy people latch on to the movement. People see the miracles of healing done by the apostles and they swarm them with requests for help.
And it becomes a logistical nightmare. The apostles are overwhelmed so that they barely have time to devote themselves to prayer and the teaching of the Word. So they decide they must “delegate” the compassionate care work to others: the first deacons (“servant ministers”) are ordained.
And among these seven wise, spiritual men is one who stands out, obviously a teacher of apostolic quality and one whom the Spirit is using mightily (“performing amazing miracles”, Acts 6:8). We will never know what Stephen might have accomplished, for the Lord allowed him to be the first martyr of the Christian movement. “Martyr” comes from the Greek word for “witness”, and the implication is that witnessing boldly for Christ is dangerous.
Stephen’s ministry effectiveness brings him opposition. This time the problem does not start with the religious establishment. Instead, there is an association of Jews from around the Roman Empire, apparently former slaves who now call themselves “the Freedmen”. They dispute what Stephen is saying about Jesus, but he always wins the arguments. When they can’t defeat him fairly, they start cheating: they bribe people to make false accusations about Stephen. Eventually he is arrested and brought before the Church Council, the Sanhedrin. When they look at him, he appears angelic (6:15).
The whole chapter 7 of Acts is devoted to Stephen’s message to the members of the Sanhedrin. I think it is the longest sermon in Scripture. It is invaluable for us because it is a New Testament summary of holy history. It looks back on major events of the Old Testament in the light of Christ.
I will not address the OT events here, because in a way, we already did that months ago! But here is a “summary of Stephen’s summary”; these are the points he makes, leading up to the astonishing accusations that get him killed:
- God spoke to Abraham, who responded to Him in faith
- God promised descendants and land to Abraham, though the land would not be granted till long after Abraham’s death
- God foretold the time of bondage in Egypt and how he would eventually deliver Israel and punish Egypt
- God gave Abraham the sign of the covenant called circumcision (I may never understand why it was THAT sign!)
- God gave Abraham a son of the covenant, Isaac, who “begat” Jacob, who had the twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of the one nation of Israel
- One of Jacob’s son, Joseph, became powerful in Egypt, saving both the Egyptian people and his own family — a Jew saving a foreign nation
- There were 400 years of hardship in Egypt before God called Moses to be the first great deliverer (my NLT Bible says “ruler and savior” — 7:35)
- (Up to now, I’m thinking that the Sanhedrin are wrapped up in Stephen’s knowledgeable teaching, impressed, wondering what the problem is… but now Stephen begins to lay the foundation for pointing out their own disobedience and stubbornness that recently led to the crucifixion of the King of Glory…)
- The Jews were disobedient in the wilderness despite Yahweh’s goodness to them
- They were idolatrous in the wilderness, and later worshiped horrible false Gods, including Molech, which supposedly demanded child sacrifice
- This latter idolatry happened after Joshua led the people into The Land promised to them, where they seemed incapable of putting their own God, Yahweh, first. Instead they worshiped whatever the pagan peoples around them worshiped.
- They still had the Tabernacle, but King David wanted to build a permanent place for the Presence of Yahweh — the Temple
- Finally, within the sight of that very Temple, Stephen let loose with his brave indictment: “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.” (7:51-53)
No wonder they were mad! Stephen was “calling out” the Sanhedrin, calling them ungodly, persecutors of their spiritual ancestors, killer of the Messiah, disobeyers of God’s law — the very thing they insist they are trying to protect.
The religious leaders are “infuriated”! They shake their fists at him, they shout and cover their ears so they won’t hear his “blasphemy”. They surround him and drag him outside the walls of the city — tradition puts this at the northeast corner of the Temple mount, on a steep hillside above the Kidron Valley, straight across from the Garden of Gethsemane. They take off their cloaks so that they will be free to throw rocks.
And they stone him to death. Before he dies, Stephen uses the very words of the Lord Himself to turn his spirit over the God, then asks for God’s mercy on his killers before he dies.
The presence of the Pharisee Saul (who will become Paul) is intriguing. Beyond the obvious irony that he approves of this saint’s death but will later emulate Stephen in his willingness to die for the Lord and His Gospel, I find myself wondering if Saul was present in the Sanhedrin’s meeting. Could he also have been at the previous gatherings for the questioning of Peter and John? Is this already the beginning of Saul/Paul’s training as an apostle? Could Stephen’s careful exposition of God’s plan be a building block in Paul’s own understanding of God’s great salvation plan? Has Stephen sown seeds that pave the way for Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus?
“Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen” (8:1).
ReSight ~ “So select seven men who are well-respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility (the food program). Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” (Acts 6:3-4)
PrayerWrite ~ Lord, thank you for the courage of Stephen. May my witness also be bold enough to put me at risk for Your sake.
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